I'm waiting for Jo Brand getting her back doors put in by Operation Yewtree dibble, but she's not a comedian, or not a funny one anyway.The most satisfying arrest was that cunt Tarbuck, oh how we rejoiced

Cheers

Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country - Bertrand Russell

(Reuters) - Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified documents in the nation's history, said on Thursday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

Manning received the sentence on Wednesday for giving more than 700,000 secret files, videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. His lawyers had argued the former Army intelligence analyst suffered a sexual identity crisis when he leaked the files while serving in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read by anchorwoman Savannah Guthrie on NBC News' "Today" show.

"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."

An Army spokeswoman said the Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-change surgery.

Manning's lawyer David Coombs said on the TV program he expected his client to get a pardon from U.S. President Barack Obama.

Manning was convicted last month on 20 charges, including espionage and theft. He will serve his sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Coombs has said Manning could be pardoned in seven years.

Coombs said Manning was seeking hormone therapy and not a sex-change operation.

"I'm hoping that Fort Leavenworth will do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so," he said.

An Army spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, "The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery."

Military inmates have access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioral science specialists, she said.

"COMFORTABLE IN HER SKIN"

Asked if Manning wanted to be sent to a women's prison, Coombs said no.

"I think the ultimate goal is to be comfortable in her skin and to be the person that she's never had an opportunity to be," he said.

Coombs said he was not worried about Manning's safety in a military prison since inmates there were first-time offenders who wanted to complete their sentences and get out.

Experts generally view military prisons as safer than civilian prisons since the inmates are accustomed to hierarchy and discipline.

Manning had not wanted his sexual identity issues to become public, but they did after his arrest in 2010, Coombs said.

"Now that it is (public), unfortunately you have to deal with it in a public manner," he said.

A psychiatrist, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, testified during Manning's trial that he suffered from gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Defense lawyers had argued that Manning had been increasingly isolated and under intense stress when he leaked the files, and that his superiors had ignored warning signs.

They cited erratic behavior, including sending a picture of himself dressed as a woman to a superior and punching another soldier.

In a related case involving sexual-identity issues in prisons, a federal judge last year ordered Massachusetts officials to pay for a convicted murderer's sex-change operation. The judge ruled the state had violated the inmate's constitutional rights in denying the procedure.

Kurt wrote:The more I read about the guy the more I am convinced people may have either intentionally or unintentionally taken advantage of a vulnerable person.

Yes, I think so. There were all sorts of bells, whistles and warnings yet they still just kept sending him back to his desk and his computer. There he was, throwing tantrums, curling up in fetal positions in the office, punching female co-workers in the face and they didn't know what to do about him so they pretended everything about him was all A-OK up to the point in which he outed shit to Assange. Why didn't anyone come out and say that perhaps not a good idea to let him at all that classified information? It just shows a great failure of leadership from the top down.

Kurt wrote:The more I read about the guy the more I am convinced people may have either intentionally or unintentionally taken advantage of a vulnerable person.

Yes, I think so. There were all sorts of bells, whistles and warnings yet they still just kept sending him back to his desk and his computer. There he was, throwing tantrums, curling up in fetal positions in the office, punching female co-workers in the face and they didn't know what to do about him so they pretended everything about him was all A-OK up to the point in which he outed shit to Assange. Why didn't anyone come out and say that perhaps not a good idea to let him at all that classified information? It just shows a great failure of leadership from the top down.

Dunno if it was the legacy of Don't Ask Don't Tell or what since I am not familiar at all with military matters but I think both Manning and Snowden showed that the government had, and probably still has, a serious gap in filtering out who should handle intelligence.

On a related note, I got an e-mail from a recruiter offering me a job at a base on a Hawaiian Moutaintop where I was told it paid well but I would be sequestered with minimal provisions for weeks at a time.

Anyone who would send an e-mail out to just anyone (like me...I would not hire me based on my profile) for what was essentially a Snowden type job shows that the faults are still there and they believe they can fight them with long prison terms.

Kurt wrote:The more I read about the guy the more I am convinced people may have either intentionally or unintentionally taken advantage of a vulnerable person.

Yes, I think so. There were all sorts of bells, whistles and warnings yet they still just kept sending him back to his desk and his computer. There he was, throwing tantrums, curling up in fetal positions in the office, punching female co-workers in the face and they didn't know what to do about him so they pretended everything about him was all A-OK up to the point in which he outed shit to Assange. Why didn't anyone come out and say that perhaps not a good idea to let him at all that classified information? It just shows a great failure of leadership from the top down.

Dunno if it was the legacy of Don't Ask Don't Tell or what since I am not familiar at all with military matters but I think both Manning and Snowden showed that the government had, and probably still has, a serious gap in filtering out who should handle intelligence.

On a related note, I got an e-mail from a recruiter offering me a job at a base on a Hawaiian Moutaintop where I was told it paid well but I would be sequestered with minimal provisions for weeks at a time.

Anyone who would send an e-mail out to just anyone (like me...I would not hire me based on my profile) for what was essentially a Snowden type job shows that the faults are still there and they believe they can fight them with long prison terms.

For sure a very real possibility. Making the US military a social experiment was not only a huge mistake in situations like this, but it also gets people killed.

Diversity for the sake of diversity is deadly.

I am the object of criticism around the world. But I think that since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track.

Also it would not surprise me to find out that someone, or perhaps Manning himself, thought that military discipline was the way to correct his problems. The military also should never be viewed as a therapist or a corrective measure as this would debase both military and civilian life.

That Manning dude would have been much better off going to a large, liberal town with rainbow flags outside of cafes and bars and meeting gays, transgender and tolerant straights. There was a reason why open Homosexuals in the Soviet Union were all employed as honeytraps..most were not even a sexual nature either, just someone who said they "understood".

Kurt wrote:Also it would not surprise me to find out that someone, or perhaps Manning himself, thought that military discipline was the way to correct his problems. The military also should never be viewed as a therapist or a corrective measure as this would debase both military and civilian life.

That Manning dude would have been much better off going to a large, liberal town with rainbow flags outside of cafes and bars and meeting gays, transgender and tolerant straights. There was a reason why open Homosexuals in the Soviet Union were all employed as honeytraps..most were not even a sexual nature either, just someone who said they "understood".

Lots of people let Manning down.

Yep. Still, I bet he was insufferable to work with. Just like he held the desire that people adapt to him and his neuroses he had the responsiblitly as a human being, no matter where he worked, to buck-up and adapt to what he signed up for.

there is the problem of making a martyr out of him. From what I sense about his gender conflict, he might actually enjoy the rigid, manly Aqua Velva world of military prisons. They might yank him out after 6 months because he finally found where they do the casting calls for those Village People videos

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